Ashkin Answers the Question: Are We Cooked?

Bloomington, IN – On Monday, October 8, 2018, the world’s leading climate scientists released a report that painted a far more dire picture of the immediate consequences of climate change than previously thought.

It says that avoiding damage requires “quickly transforming the world economy,” according to the New York Times.

The report was from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists assembled by the United Nations.

The news story went on to describe “a world of worsening food shortages and wildfires … as soon as 2040, a period well within the lifetime of much of the global population.” We could add far more devasting hurricanes to that scenario as well.

For many, the first reaction to this report was shock, according to Stephen Ashkin, the leading advocate for sustainability in the professional cleaning industry.

“And the second reaction is that ‘we’re cooked.’ There isn’t enough time or willpower to make the necessary changes to avoid disaster.”

However, Ashkin says the world has been “cooked” before and found ways to survive.

“The Great Plague epidemic of the 1300s killed a third of Europe, but Europe survived. We can tackle climate change to avoid a disaster of that magnitude.”

As to steps we can take on an individual basis, Ashkin suggests the following:

We must become more community and family focused.

We must work ardently at mending political feuds; “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies,” said Abraham Lincoln at the end of the Civil War, the most divisive time in our country’s history.

We must respect science, listen, and understand what the world’s scientists are trying to tell us.

We must be sustainability-focused in our business operations and our personal lives on a daily basis.

We must demand the phasing out of coal and traditional fuel sources to help reduce CO2.

We must vote, run for office, write letters, and have respectful conversations.

We must make the jansan industry one of the most sustainability-focused industries in the country.

We must have a can-do attitude that we can still save this planet.

“This [climate change] crisis could actually be one of the best things to happen to the world,” adds Ashkin. “It can bring the world’s people together like never before.”

Stephen P. Ashkin is president of The Ashkin Group, a consulting firm specializing in Greening the cleaning industry, and CEO of Sustainability Dashboard Tools, which helps facilities monitor and measure their use of natural resources. He is known as the “father of Green Cleaning” and the professional cleaning industries leading advocate promoting sustainability. He is also coauthor of both The Business of Green Cleaning and Green Cleaning for Dummies